"San Francisco Is Over Priced" | San Francisco Is Cost of Living Is Just Out Of Control

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Let's go.

[00:00:01]Come on.

[00:00:01]If you're only making 100k a year in the Bay Area, you're actually pretty close to broke. You're actually almost defined as low income.

[00:00:09]So, live making a 100k in the Bay Area in that San Francisco Bay Area really puts you on the brink of prob- poverty. That that's literally what it what they're saying right now. Low income in SF for an individual is 82k a year. For a family of four, it's almost 120,000 a year. For context, the average American salary is about $36,000 a year.

[00:00:28]Why are the salaries so high in the Bay Area? Because the cost of living is so high. The average one bedroom in SF is 3,100 a month and the average two bedroom is 4,100 a month. Don't even get me started on condos [music] and houses.

[00:00:40]The average condo price in San Francisco is almost 1.3 million dollars. And for houses in the Bay Area, not just San Francisco, 1.3 million dollars. You make a ton of money working and living in San Francisco, but your expenses are so high. Your tax rate is high. Your rent is high. Food is so expensive that you are effectively left with almost no money. If you make $100,000 as an individual, you're probably the poorest person in any room that you walk into.

[00:01:03]And if you make that as a family, dude, you're on food stamps and you're qualifying for Section 8 housing. As San Francisco is just out of control with this.

[00:01:11]>> The rents are getting so high in San Francisco because all of these AI employees have more cash than ever because the employers are not skimping on cash or equity for that matter, but the salaries are really high even for somebody junior. And so, the competition for apartments and other things is higher than ever because people have money to spend. I think that San Francisco is a wave city. It always ebbs and flows depending on what's going on.

[00:01:35]I mean, you've seen up and down and up and down. And during COVID, it was no secret that San Francisco has really struggled. And now with this AI wave, San Francisco has been revived because there is just so much going on. It's really an AI hub more than I think any other city. First of all, San Francisco is a 7x7 city. It's not very large. So, you have a lot of people concentrated into a small space and then can combined with all the infrastructure and office spaces and everything else. So, I'm always rooting for San Francisco as it being a hometown, but I think it's great.

[00:02:09]>> Yeah, well, you think it's great because you're not renting an apartment there as you happily sit in St. Louis in your house that if you wanted to spend the same amount of money on a place in San Francisco, you could buy maybe a studio.

[00:02:20]If that >> [laughter] >> Yeah, she need to tell her because it it I could make comments on living in Cali even though I've had relatives that lived in Cali is San Francisco, LA specifically, but bro, it's too expensive. To me, it's too expensive. It doesn't matter how much you make. 150,000, 125,000, sure, it's not the highest of the high, but the reality of it is if I'm I'm living in Atlanta, I I can live pretty good okay off of 125 or 150,000.

[00:02:55]Even now, like I don't even see how they can live in Cali and make make that amount. A Some of y'all got to tell me if you've ever lived in Cali, like why?

[00:03:05]What I know what makes people stay there. It's it's not even the jobs. It's just the air, the open space, the the sun, the weather, you know? But I don't know. I'm not sold on making 150 in Cali with higher cost of living than making 150 in Atlanta. But like I said earlier, these jobs are moving away from Atlanta. They're moving to certain places. And Cali and Florida are becoming AI hubs faster than we even think. I think it'd be a studio in a place I wouldn't really necessarily want to be living in. But up and coming neighborhood, but even at this point, most of those up and coming neighborhoods are still already on the tape versus on the down low. So, right.

[00:03:51]I get asked a lot how I afford to live in San Francisco.

[00:03:54]I'm going to break that down for you right now.

[00:03:56]I have three jobs.

[00:03:58]Hope that helps. No. Um I would have to say it's not affordable to live in San Francisco. Like it's expensive as [ __ ] You could have roommates though and it makes it better. Like I have I have a roommate. You kind of have to have a roommate unless you make a lot of money.

[00:04:12]Um But yeah, like a gallon of milk is probably like like almond milk I buy is like $6 which I feel like is a lot. I feel like it's like $4 for other people it is. Damn, $6?

[00:04:25]Man, if you were in Cali and you spend and you spend $6 for almond milk, that is crazy. That's expensive, yo.

[00:04:34]That's really expensive. Right?

[00:04:38]Oh, that's crazy. That's expensive.

[00:04:42]I I got to look Hold on. Hold on.

[00:04:43][laughter] I got to see this. Hold on.

[00:04:47]Oh, man.

[00:04:50]Hold on. Hold on. Let milk Let's see what this looks like. Um Kroger, right?

[00:04:56]$6, bro? Yo, the same almond milk That same almond milk in Atlanta, I'm looking at the Kroger the Instacart right now. If I ordered on Instacart, bro, it it's like $3.99.

[00:05:10]Y'all are literally double 3.59, 2.99.

[00:05:16]I see 5.99. Okay, but that's a bigger jar.

[00:05:20]Bigger jug a jug.

[00:05:22]Oh, snap, man. That's too much. That's way too much.

[00:05:28]So, we pay 5,400 in the San Francisco Bay Area for a two-bedroom apartment. Yeah, it's it's tough to survive [music] and barely survive surviving, I guess you could say.

[00:05:43]So, that 5,400, it includes the two-bedroom apartment. It has amenities.

[00:05:49]It has a swimming pool.

[00:05:51]>> [music] >> We actually had to choose this path. We were in other places in San Francisco, but we had to move to a new development because our youngest was getting asthma.

[00:06:02]>> [music] >> There was always mold in any apartment we would go to >> [music] >> and our son would be coughing so much.

[00:06:12]His asthma got worse. And then ever since we moved to new development apartments, his asthma done. [music] Never came back. Do you pay $4,000 a month to live in San Francisco or is that insane? One thing that people don't talk about before you move here is that the cost of living will literally punch you in the face and throw you around like you never thought possible. I'm talking $8 lattes, $70 dinners with only one drink, and rent that's going to make you question all of your choices.

[00:06:39]It's insane.

[00:06:41]No AC included as well.

[00:06:43]But one thing that I have learned that works for me is pick your splurges. I'll drop money on a >> Did she say no AC included?

[00:06:51]So, you guys are living in Cali without and you're paying that price and sometimes you don't have AC in the house?

[00:06:57]But then they will advocate for you to have a rent type of um I think what the same thing they have in in in in uh New York.

[00:07:08]Like you're you're restricted to a certain amount of rent. The landlord can't charge you more, right? Rent control. That's what it's called.

[00:07:16]It I kind of feel like they should be advocating for better conditions.

[00:07:22]And And that's the thing. When you have rent control and I said it before, you're not going to have the highest quality of living. Okay? Rent control controls the landlord, but it also makes it where you don't get a high don't get the things that you need done in your unit because the landlord cannot charge the market rate that he would normally charge.

[00:07:45]So, it affects the quality of your life and that's why you find out some of these reviews and commentary from people, they talk about them living in mold-infested apartments with kids.

[00:08:02]S- because they're more concerned with rent control and living in a specific city.

[00:08:07]So, you got to live in a specific city and you can't leave that city because you like that city and that same city is giving mold to your children in in the living environment, but it's cheaper and you advocate for it because it's rent control?

[00:08:23]I don't know about that.

[00:08:25]I don't know. You tell me. I I I I'm I'm not sold on that. I'd rather go somewhere where my money at least will give me a good quality place. meal without thinking twice. But I balance it with a lot of different free experiences like hikes, Dolores Park days, farmers markets, the little things that don't break the bank. It's about knowing what actually matters to you. And I'm so curious as people have gotten older, how have they balanced figuring out what balance what like matters and is most critical to them and their happiness when living in a city? Here's how you afford to live in San Francisco as a non-rich person like me.

[00:08:58]Step one, don't have a car. That's pretty much the biggest step. It's just don't have a car. When I lived in Delaware, I had to have a car to get around to get to work, you know, just live. My car payment was 450. My insurance was a bit over 100, so that's like 570 now. I'd spent like 60, 70 on gas. Now we're up to a little over 600 and then you think about registration, vehicle maintenance, which I did myself, so I saved money, but even still, we're looking at close to $700 I used to spend per month on my car. Now I don't have a car, you just have to think, okay, well, rent is way higher here. So, I just put that $700 that I used to spend on my car toward rent.

[00:09:36]So, so tell This is my question. You're watching this.

[00:09:40]Is it better to live in a place that you want at a lower quality of life than to live in a place that you may not necessarily be It may not necessarily sarily be your first choice, but you have a higher quality of life. And And I think the second one is better.

[00:09:59]Because I may not like I've lived by the beach.

[00:10:04]Got off my corporate position at 12:00 and I'm sipping a beer at 1:00 on the beach. And I did that for 3 4 years. 3 years specifically.

[00:10:15]And it felt way good, you know? And now coming back to Atlanta, I didn't necessarily want to be back in Atlanta.

[00:10:22]Yeah, I prefer to be smoking a cigar on the beach.

[00:10:26]Uh but I needed some habits I needed to change and that was one of them, of course.

[00:10:31]But it was still a better quality of life for my kids. And and I don't know. Like I don't know how people make these decisions. And and I'm it it confuses me a little bit because the quality of life thing to me affects you as you go down and you're living your life. Like this year you you can deal with a landlord that doesn't act right. You can deal with pipes that don't that that fall apart or burst. Uh uh you pay extra. Like we pay To me, I yell at $50 for an Uber at 8:00 at night or 7:00 in Atlanta because that's 50 bucks.

[00:11:09]Knowing still that it's a lot of traffic.

[00:11:13]Some people that same 50 bucks can be 100 to 150 bucks in San Fran.

[00:11:18]That's not a great cop quality of life.

[00:11:21]And maybe San Francisco is just for people who don't have children.

[00:11:26]Because I can't quite see how y'all would actually exchange that quality of life to live somewhere where the sun is shining and it's beautiful and it feels good.

[00:11:37]But damn, I mean I at least want my water to be at a certain place. I want my what I put in my body to be a certain way. I want I don't want to have mold in my my lungs when I sleep at night.

[00:11:51]And these are the type of decisions I I do this stuff because I'm telling people like y'all got to make better life decisions.

[00:11:59]And I'm not standing here like some of these other podcasters and blaming you cuz I've made bad life decisions in my life, too. Not like terrible that destroyed my life. But it's enough to make one bad decision and be like, "Dang, I wish I did that differently."

[00:12:15]That's pretty much it. That's how you afford to live here is you just live in the city, work in the city.

[00:12:21]Don't have a car. Daily Fairer to Come [music] has arrived. And I have officially been priced out of my apartment. Woo! No matter which way we cut it, I will not be living in this house.

[00:12:34]The 80-day countdown starts here.

[00:12:37]I think we're [music] probably going to move that in the out of the neighborhood. And so asking for not a friend, asking for me, where do I have to check out? Like what do I have to see and try while [music] it's still walking distance?

[00:12:51]>> in the Embarcadero. We live kind of by Jackson Square.

[00:12:56]Thinking [music] North Beach, too far away. No parking. Will not be back anytime soon. Chinatown, [music] same thing.

[00:13:02]Um Rincon Hill, I don't know. Downtown, FiDi, any of these things, >> [music] >> let me know. What are your favorite spots to go to um for me to try, for me to share with all of you my perspective [music] before the 80-day countdown is up.

[00:13:19]So y'all So y'all get excited of being priced out? I mean, there's nothing wrong with being priced out. I guess that's That's an exciting thing.